30th IEG Annual Sponsorship Conference gave me at least 30 pieces of take-aways I want to share with you.

1. No drama policy (Gail Lowney Alofsin, Newport Harbor)
2. Storytelling and great content also make good signage.
3. Engagement doesn’t equal likes (Lesa Ukman, IEG)
4. Formula for virals: humor or rumor.
5. Paid media must be smart paid – it is not just matching target groups.
6. Activation used to be big idea, todaj is dozen of little ideas. If one doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter, there are new waiting for us. (Lesa Ukman, IEG)
7. New generation is all about me.
8. Better story means less investment into paid media.
9. Sponsors don’t get credit for being big sponsors (Lesa Ukman, IEG)
10. The easiest way to get attention is to do what they don’t expect.
11. Solutions not badging (Lesa Ukman, IEG)
12. If you don’t talk to each other, you can’t make difference (Scot McNearney, SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Conferences and Festivals)
13. We don’t make great busienss if we don’t enjoy ourselves (Jim Stengel, The Jim Stengel Company)
14. Neuroscience is a fancy word for what people think and feel. (Jim Stengel, The Jim Stengel Company)
15. Communication is not a billboard, but everything we do. (Jim Stengel, The Jim Stengel Company)
16. Shift from brand campaign to campaigning for our brand (Andy England, MillerCoors)
17. Give attention to all details if you don’t have money (Norman Brodie, Cadbury)
18. Mindset is critical for success (Norman Brodie,Cadbury)
19. Willingness to constantly adjust and adapt (Norman Brodie, Cadbury)
20. I gave licence to digital people to play (Norman Brodie, Cadbury)
21. Don’t fall in love over your model than passion. Get over yourself (Kyle Zimmer, First Book)
22. Be excelent in everything. It is a small thing (Kyle Zimmer, First Book)
23. The only thing we know is that we don’t know enough (Kyle Zimmer, First Book)
24. Brands should help people to find themselves. (Frank Cooper, Pepsi Co)
25. Values have to serve like a north star. (Frank Cooper, Pepsi Co)
26. If you see purpose as social marketing than you should ask yourself why do you exist. (Frank Cooper, Pepsi Co)
27. We are on marketing train that never gets station. (Jim Trebilcock, Dr Pepper Snapple Group)
28. We are discovering our consumers wants,, needs, beliefs all the time. (Jim Trebilcock, Dr Pepper Snapple Group)
29. Partnership is something that I have to build on and on. (Jim Trebilcock, Dr Pepper Snapple Group)
30. You always have to know what is the vision and misson of your partnership (Glenn Weckerlin, Chevron Corp.)

30th IEG Annual Sponsorship Conference gave me at least 30 pieces of take-aways I want to share with you.

1. No drama policy (Gail Lowney Alofsin, Newport Harbor)
2. Storytelling and great content also make good signage.
3. Engagement doesn’t equal likes (Lesa Ukman, IEG)
4. Formula for virals: humor or rumor.
5. Paid media must be smart paid – it is not just matching target groups.
6. Activation used to be a big idea, today it is a dozen of little ideas. If one doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter, there are new waiting for us. (Lesa Ukman, IEG)
7. The new generation is all about me.
8. Better story means less investment into paid media.
9. Sponsors don’t get credit for being big sponsors (Lesa Ukman, IEG)
10. The easiest way to get attention is to do what they don’t expect.
11. Solutions not badging (Lesa Ukman, IEG)
12. If you don’t talk to each other, you can’t make a difference (Scot McNearney, SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Conferences and Festivals)
13. We don’t make great business if we don’t enjoy ourselves (Jim Stengel, The Jim Stengel Company)
14. Neuroscience is a fancy word for what people think and feel. (Jim Stengel, The Jim Stengel Company)
15. Communication is not a billboard, but everything we do. (Jim Stengel, The Jim Stengel Company)
16. A shift from a brand campaign to campaigning for our brand (Andy England, MillerCoors)
17. Give attention to all details if you don’t have money (Norman Brodie, Cadbury)
18. Mindset is critical for success (Norman Brodie,Cadbury)
19. Willingness to constantly adjust and adapt (Norman Brodie, Cadbury)
20. I gave licence to digital people to play (Norman Brodie, Cadbury)
21. Don’t fall in love over your model rather than passion. Get over yourself (Kyle Zimmer, First Book)
22. Be excellent in everything. It is a small thing (Kyle Zimmer, First Book)
23. The only thing we know is that we don’t know enough (Kyle Zimmer, First Book)
24. Brands should help people to find themselves. (Frank Cooper, Pepsi Co)
25. Values have to serve as a north star. (Frank Cooper, Pepsi Co)
26. If you see a purpose as a social marketing than you should ask yourself why you exist. (Frank Cooper, Pepsi Co)
27. We are on a marketing train that never gets to the station. (Jim Trebilcock, Dr Pepper Snapple Group)
28. We are discovering our consumers’ wants, needs, beliefs all the time. (Jim Trebilcock, Dr Pepper Snapple Group)
29. Partnership is something that I have to build on and on. (Jim Trebilcock, Dr Pepper Snapple Group)
30. You always have to know what the vision and mission of your partnership are (Glenn Weckerlin, Chevron Corp.)

Quite often we hear “We don’t like to say we sponsor, we rather prefer saying we have a tight partnership with win-win relationship.” But has anybody ever said that a sponsorship is not about a win-win partnership?

Why is a partnership with a win-win relationship not regarded as a sponsorship? Are we just trying to be inventive with words and showing that our sponsorships are completely different from traditional sponsorships where impression was the most important sponsorship right (and today still the most valuable one for a sponsee)? Or are sponsorships really going to vanish from our business?!

If we want to understand what sponsorship is and what it is not, we should go back to the definition of the term.

IEG defined sponsorship in 1982 as: A cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property (typically sports, entertainment, non-profit event or organization) in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property. (Visit their glossary for more definitions and explanations).

Other definitions all derive from IEG’s. A property of rights and a buyer of those rights are the main players in this relationship. Don’t we have the same relationships in Red Bull partnerships that are above traditional sponsorships?

Why d0n’t we just develop a type of sponsorships that will help understand a broader marketing and business audience the evolution of sponsorships? It looks like the main change in sponsorships happened with the prohibition of tobacco advertising (and sponsorships) and most probably it will happen with alcohol in the near future as well. Companies became very inventive when it comes to exploiting traditional sponsorship rights (such as LED screens, banners, on-site promotions etc.) and in the field of product innovation that is customized to sponsored properties. Even more so: many brands and their companies invented their own properties that would serve them exclusively (after some time they start to act like sponsees and sell sponsorship rights to other companies).

Today we have a plenty of different win-win partnerships. They are still called sponsorships and I will keep calling them sponsorships in the future. Partnerships with musicians, NGOs, artists, film makers, TV programmes, athletes etc., that don’t just result in buying advertising space are called sponsorships. Regardless of what they will officially be called: win-win partnership, love relationship, marriage, co-branding or special friendship. It doesn’t matter. What matters is your creativity and ingenuity of such partnership.

This year ISPO also awarded the best marketing projects of the year. Since they award products in different categories and markets, the year 2013 was the first one awarding brands and companies for their marketing approaches and innovations.

All marketing ideas that were awarded at ISPO 2013 have important messages for marketing departments not just of sports brands but any brands:

• the quality of the story and visuals are key elements of success
• don’t engage people (consumers), but have a relationship with them
• there is no good marketing without excellent product

And now, My winners are:

Casey Neistat’s video for Nike Make it Count. The campaign Make it count has been very successful all over the world, but it was supported by popular Nike endorsers. Casey Neistat make it count for the campaign with great picture and montage. And the message makes it count for everybody who loves to travel and travel. Who doesn’t like to travel? :)

There was no gold winner in the category social awareness, but Canadian company Arc’teryx got great visual and contextual exposure with the project Bird Nest. The idea is very simple, but I believe many brands would get afraid of cooperation with homeless people. Volunteer staff members at Arc‘teryx’s headquarters in Vancouver sew simple, yet functional capes made of Gore-Tex remnants. These were handed out to homeless persons with the help of the city’s police departments.

The premiere of ISPO marketing award shows that sports brands are doing great job, but most of the time we don’t see them on international marketing/advertising/web festivals/awards. Why is the reason? I would say the first one is for sure that sports brands mostly don’t work with worldwide advertising networks which are the driving force of those awards. I believe there is also a space for sharing those marketing knowledge and experiences not just to other sports brands but to non-sports brands.

Without any special introduction: urban sport of tommorow :) some great actions from ISPO 2013.

Miss Yoga Slackline in action:

Mr. Gravitation-in-one-hand:

Mr. Dre:

Miss Yoga 2. appearance:

Miss Mini:

Man Slackline:

Mr. Jump-on-jump-off:

Which brand is the most successful using YouTube as a communication channel? At first glace many people would say Nike due to its successful campaigns for FIFA World Cup and recently finished Olympic Games. But – here are the numbers. 

I analyzed most popular sports apparel brands especially in European football (soccer). Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Puma and Umbro are the oldies goldies of football apparel sponsorship. They have been partners of the best European football clubs and national teams for decades.

First account on YouTube

Surprisingly Puma was the first one having its own account on YouTube. They uploaded 1.669 videos since October 8, 2005. This is also the highest number of videos among analyzed brands per channel. If Puma is the winner in the category of the highest number of uploaded videos, Nike and Adidas lead in the number of channels and views per video.

Nike and Adidas have several accounts like: Nike Football, Nike, Adidas, Adidas Football TV, Adidas Originals etc. I included just the first three. It is more than obvious that football is the most wanted content on YouTube. Nike’s ad Write the future is still the leader in views per video. First and second place belong to Nike: account Nike has 200,035 views per uploaded video in average and account Nike Football has 189,700 views per uploaded video in average. The proof of football popularity shows the result of Adidas: account Adidas has just 71,550 views per uploaded videos and account Adidas Originals  34,560 views. And Adidas Football? 138,441 views per uploaded video in average.

Nike also leads in the absolute number of subscribers: just Nike Football account has 316,939 subscribers, while Adidas has just 127,604 subscribers at all three accounts (Adidas, Adidas Football TV and Adidas Originals).

Puma produces the most videos

Can you believe it? Puma uploaded more videos than Nike and Adidas with three accounts each. What is more surprisingly is that Nike account has uploaded just 147 videos, which is less than Umbro has it. Adidas is quite close to Puma, but considering all three accounts (1,547 uploaded videos).

How to win YouTube with sports apparel brand?

The success on YouTube (measured by number of views in general and views per uploaded video) doesn’t depend on the amount of uploaded videos or subscribers. Also it doesn’t count if you are the first one on new social network. (As we all know :)) it is better to think what would you like to achieve with your presence. Many brands like Reebok were among first brands on YouTube, but today’s results show that great content, right viral channels and football can bring you on the half way of the success. For the other way you have to be Nike* :)

*In this context Nike is a synonym for unknown winning formula like brand Nike knows how to find it with its branded activation.

It has been a very special week. I asked myself several times if this is the planet where I want to live. The economic crisis (and no money) has recently become and excuse for everything that people are scared to do or don’t want to do. But on other hand I met two outstanding children who are so different that I still believe that the future is where I belong. 

It is hard to see colleagues and friends struggling with really stupid situations. I cannot say weird, because weird means that you cannot explain it. Stupid means that you can explain it but you cannot understand it with common sense. Why you rather hire people without experience and will to work in high heels (nothing personal to high heels :)) than people who have already show their experiences and they can explain what they can do for you? Why you rather support the employees who is always saying YES to you than the other who tells you when you are wrong? Why you hire a company that has already show how important client are you than a new one?

It is just because you don’t dare to confront with the consequences that are not 100% guaranteed. You rather see an average outcome than an outstanding one. Because you have your good excuses on your list from previous situations. And I am afraid to work in a world that is rather on the safe side than trying to improve – as we like to say: for better world.

But now to the story of those two kids that give me the hope for really better tomorrow. Those two boys I met at local fairy yesterday. His twin brother (both about 10 years old) was selling his books and toys. They don’t need money, but they found it interesting that people were coming with different products and they want to try. They made more attractions for potential buyers than any other exhibitor. After a few hours they realized that people are not willing to buy their stuff (they told me that they earned 17 euros – 15 euros was from their mother who bought her children toys back :)) and they went home. In an hour of my presence I learned a lot from them.

Their attitude was so inspiring: I am listening to so many motivational speakers and their promotions, and nobody inspired me more than those two boys. They could play at home garden, but they didn’t. They could be stubborn children visiting the fair with their parents and pulling their parents hands to buy them new toys. But they didn’t. At the end they were happy with a new experiences and new friends (me and my dog :)). They learned about people who were passing by. They learned how hard is to earn money and to sell products. They learn about communication. And they were both having the best time of their life. And I learned from them, too.

When I was living the fair, I heard a lady saying: “Oh, those two boys were gypsies.” Yes, my dear, it is a great excuse for you not moving your ass.

Sometimes we confront situations that every average person would be quiet and just let it go. There are people who are not quiet and they stand stile for what they believe. Believing means you don’t care about the consequences because you believe. You are not scared about the future, because you believe. If you d0n’t believe and if you are just looking for a new comfort zone, it is better to count on past.

The future is not about already known comfort, it is about new. Great new experiences.

March is a month traditionally dedicated to IEG’s annual conference – it is a month that awakes inspiration and reminds me why I am in this business. 

Lesa Ukman started her keynote speech with Google’s human resource management snapshot: each employee dedicates 80% of his working time to his or her regular tasks and 20% to his or her personal interests. Of course many great ideas come out of those 20% and at the same time people are more effective performing their regular tasks. I asked myself: how do I split my time between work and so called “personal interests”? Most of the time I give 120% to regular tasks and it is only during sleep that I have time for my “personal interests”. IEG’s annual sponsorship conference 2012 definitely gave me numerous new ideas and a lot to think about. And the most important: it always gives me a special super-power to do this business on underdeveloped market with “everything is possible” attitude.

Lesa said that the future of sponsorships is in fusion of empathy, research, technology and creativity. Emotions drive behaviour and companies are partnering with non-profits because they are driving their business as well. Social responsibility thrives into social opportunity.  Two great examples supported her statement: Timberland and Hublot – both confronted with high competition and particular customer behaviour. And they were both able to manage their business through great partnerships in sports, social, environmental spheres of our lives.

In general, I think sponsorships have been developing in three main directions:

• “EYE sponsorships”: Sponsorships as an advertising tool which is just compensation for classic advertising campaign. Brands like P&G and Gatorade etc. want to differentiate from other brands (not just direct competitors) with special partnerships which enhance unique (mostly) visual communication.
• “TOUCH sponsorships”: Sponsorships as a marketing platform for product development and other marketing Ps. Today, we usually see these kind of sponsorship programs as long-term partnerships which create much more than just unique model of marketing communication. Wendy Clark from Coca Cola showed great examples of how their partnerships bring both sides – sponsor and sponsee – to a new level of marketing.
• “MARRIAGE sponsorships”: In my opinion the essence of sponsorships. When your business is driven by sponsee and sponsee business is driven by sponsor. In this type of sponsorship corporate communication, marketing communication, marketing, sales, product development etc. are not only closely connected, but they breath the same air. Hublot-Ferarri partnership is a great example of that. Mr. Biver called this kind of partnership a marriage.

I think every partnership should be based on matrimonial values. But can we in these turbulent times really give our brand the essence only with one partner? We should spend even more time on different partnerships and build new business opportunities – like Timberland did with Earthkeepers – and not only “complete our to-do list” of partnership activation programs.

Supporting and helping each other by sharing experiences, knowledge and inspiration are values that IEG conference and especially Lesa and Jeff give me every time I listen to their speeches, lectures, panels etc. Dear IEG team, I hope I will be able to support your priceless effort to make leap in our minds for sponsorships as long as possible.

I strongly believe that we will meet again next March!

Many national teams preparing for EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine have already presented new kits. Why are football fans much more sensitive about kit changes in football/soccer than tennis fans?

Can you imagine Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal or Novak Djokovic playing in the same T-shirt design (and other apparel) throughout the season? Guys sometimes change their T-shirt during the match (and female part of audience is very much keen on those kind of moments :)) and clothing brands have made great effort in showing-off their products. Can you name a brand which wouldn’t like to have “a moment for sponsors” before each Grand Slam or – if speaking in terms of their potential for media exposure in time – four times a year? This means four peaks a year, four opportunities for driving sales, sponsorship events etc.

Many arguments of those opposed to changing national team’s kits say that we build worldwide recognition and image of national attributes. That is true, but it takes decades and teams have to be very successful at the biggest competitions. Brazil, Netherlands, Spain, Germany are great examples of that. But all countries don’t have the same results and such a long history. I think each country has to make its own kit strategy. It is great to be a national team of a country with wide recognition and rich tradition, but especially in Europe there are many countries with only about 20 years of statehood. Can you recognize the kits of Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Montenegro or Serbia? We Slovenians often look accross our southern border at Croatian national team which for us has a very recognizable kit with red and white chessboard pattern. But how much of it’s success depends on red-white-(sometimes also)blue kits and how much on their sports results?

In my opinion it is good to know what others are doing, but if you want to differentiate than you have to have your own vision, idea, strategy (whatever you call it). For example, Germany has changed its away kit to green. Many fans outside Germany were totally surprised by this choice of color. But what Germany wanted to do was to emphasize the winning spirit of the 1976  national team which was playing in green T-shirts. The green color has a meaning/story behind it and that’s all what matters to their fans.

New away kit of Slovenian national football team reminded me of those high school days when we had to read famous poems and interpret them. Interpreting symbols and words has always been a special thing for my imagination. And when we want to use new or changed symbols in sports kit’s design, we should think about possible interpretations. New slovenian football kit reminds me of our mountains in summer (green line) and mountains in winter (white line). Blue is a color of blue sky: freedom, unlimited wishes and goals. Blue as a symbol of unlimited sky is quite important for a country with 2 million people and less than 2,000 professional football players.

And new blue football kit is also a symbol of positioning Slovenia as an important football nation: sports clothing sponsor Nike is taking Slovenia to the same level as other football nations. We are not small at all :) And we have much more likeable blue kits than Spain :)